what happened?

OK, class today did not go as planned. That may be an understatement.

What I decided to do was to add text to this powerpoint, in place of the lecture.

If you have questions, please email me at:

jenbee60@illinois.edu

and I am happy to talk with you too, if you want to set up an appointment.

Jan Vermeer, Girl with a Pearl Earring,

c. 1665-6, oil on canvas, 17 1/2 x 15 3/8 inches

Jan van Eyck, Mary Crowned, completed 1432

This is where we left off last time, with the growing interest of of painters in people

who are not significant figures from religion, history, or mythology.

from traditional European art to

modern art, what changes?

even before the dramatic shift in the 20th

century, you can see a significant change in subject matter

though artists still paint portraits of royals and nobles, and scenes from the Bible, classical mythology, and important historical moments

they ALSO show significant interest in ordinary people leading ordinary lives.

Spanish painter Diego Velázquez is a good example.

The little princess, the

Infanta Margaret Theresa,

is at the center.

Immediately surrounding

her are two maids of honor.

To the right are two little

people, who were part of

her entourage. Her dog lies

in front, and her governess

and bodyguard stand in the

shadows behind the group.

Diego VELÁZQUEZ, Las Meninas, 1656, Museo del Prado

oil on canvas, 125.2 in × 108.7 inches

The Queen’s Chamberlain

stands on the steps at the

back right of the room; the

royal parents of the

princess are reflected in

the mirror hanging on the

rear wall; and the artist,

painting a huge canvas,

stands at the left.

Diego VELÁZQUEZ, Las Meninas, 1656,

Museo del Prado

oil on canvas, 125.2 in × 108.7 inches

Diego Velázquez, Portrait of Juan de Pareja, c. 1650Juan de Pareja

(1606–1670)

Assisted Velazquez in

his studio.

Was a painter in his

own right.

When Velázquez

painted this beautiful

portrait of him (which

today is in the Met in

NYC), he was a slave

in Velázquez’s house

and workshop.

Diego Velázquez, Portrait of Juan de Pareja, c. 1650Juan de Pareja

(1606–1670)

But Velázquez still

wanted to paint him,

still saw his essential

human dignity, still saw

beyond the society that

divided them into

different worlds.

Velázquez freed Juan

de Pareja in November

1650, although the

document of

manumission required

Pareja to serve

Velázquez for another 4

years. As it turned out,

Pareja remained in the

household until

Velázquez’s death, and

continued to serve his

son afterward.

Diego Velázquez, Surrender of Breda, 1634-5,

oil on canvas, Museo del Prado, Madrid

Velazquez painted this picture for the Spanish King, Philip IV (wearing the black armor

with the pink sash) in commemoration of a major military victory over the Dutch after a

year’s siege of the town of Breda.

But notice, that even though the King is pictured at the center with the conquered town

laid out behind him, Velazquez includes many striking portraits of common soldiers and

even their horses. Though the picture commemorates an important historical event,

Velazquez includes many characters who would not be considered “great men of

history.”

Diego VELÁZQUEZ, Los Borrachos (The Drinkers), 1629

Here Velázquez includes the guys from the local tavern in his mythological picture

of the Roman God of wine, Bacchus. He imagines the classical together with the

contemporary.

Goya, Charles IV of Spain and His Family, 1800

also in the Prado! an embarrassment of riches

Goya stands in the shadows, looking out at us. He isn’t one of them,

and he paints exactly what he sees in the royal family.

Francisco de GOYA

The Countess of

Chinchón

1800

oil on canvas

216 cm x 144 cm

All the silks and jewels

in Spain can’t save the

Countess from loneliness,

despair and isolation.

Èdouard MANET

Corner of a Café-Concert

1878-1879

National Gallery, London

oil on canvas

38.4 × 30.5 inches

Three quarters of a century later,

Manet paints a cocktail waitress

lost in thought while serving

customers in a busy café. She

too is alone despite the crowds

in the café.

Jean-Baptiste Greuze, The Punished Son, 1777, Louvre, 51x64"

Here Greuze takes a dramatic moment in the life of an ordinary family and makes a

history painting out of it, elevating the domestic scene to the level of history.

Jacques Louis DAVID, Death of Socrates, 1787, Met, 51x77"

Despite Greuze’s example, many popular artists still made history paintings

commemorating the lives of heroic figures, such as Socrates, the Greek philosopher

who goes bravely to his death in this picture, surrounded by his followers and friends.

Thomas Couture, Romans of the Decadence, 1847

Over time, however, this kind of mythological, classical subject comes to seem less

and less relevant. Even the spicy subject matter of the Roman orgy comes to seem

fairly ridiculous.

Claude MONET

Garden at Sainte-

Adresse

1867

Oil on canvas

38 5/8 x 51 1/8 in

The Impressionists signaled a major change, as you can see here. They are like a

breath of fresh air into the art world, which in this picture takes the literal form of the

crisp seaside breeze that the well-dressed tourists are enjoying on summer vacation.

We are in the modern world now, bright, light, and always changing, as quickly as the

weather does.

Claude MONET, Impression: Sunrise, 1872

The Impressionists also become interested in capturing atmospheric effects, like dawn

and twilight, and all types of different weather conditions. Now that photography can

capture the literal appearance of things, artists are freer to experiment.

Claude MONET

The Saint-Lazare Station

1877

Oil on canvas

H. 75; W. 104 cm

Claude MONET

The Saint-Lazare Station

1877

Oil on canvas

H. 75; W. 104 cm

If we want to document the precise appearance of this train station, we can make

a photograph (and there are many photographs of urban Paris at this time. However,

if we want to feel some of the hectic quality of the train station, the crowds, and clouds

of smoke, we might turn to Monet’s picture instead.

J.M.W. Turner

Rain, Steam and Speed,

1844 oil on canvas

36 × 48 inches

National Gallery, London

J.M.W. TURNER

Rain, Steam and

Speed, 1844 oil on

canvas

36 × 48 inches

National Gallery,

London

Working in England at an even earlier date, Turner also becomes interested in the

look and feel of various forms of weather, to the point that portions of his canvases

verge on abstraction.

J.M.W. Turner, The Burning of the Houses of Parliament, 1835

J.M.W. Turner, The Burning of the Houses of Parliament, 1835

Here Turner renders the giant fire that consumed the British Parliament in

dramatic oranges. The buildings themselves are barely visible among the flames.

James Abbott MacNeill WHISTLER

(American, living in London)

Nocturne in Black and Gold: The

Falling Rocket

1875

Whistler’s paintings push even

farther into gorgeous abstractions

full of color and texture that entice

the eye while scarcely resolving into

a recognizable picture.

Claude MONET, Waterlilies, c. 1920, MoMA, NYC

Monet’s late pictures of waterlilies floating on the pond in his garden push toward

abstract painting as well.

"A picture, before being a war horse, a nude

woman, or some anecdote, is essentially a flat

surface covered by colors in a certain order.”

—Maurice Denis

Vincent van GOGH

(Dutch, 1853–1890)

La Berceuse (Woman

Rocking a Cradle,

1889 oil on canvas,

36 1/2 x 29 inches

Second level Second level

Vincent van Gogh

Portrait of Joseph Roulin

1889

Oil on canvas

25 3/8 x 21 ¾”

Depth becomes less

important as surface

and background seem

to melt together.

Georges SEURAT, Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, 1884

Georges SEURAT, Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, 1884

Though Seurat uses conventional perspective to create the illusion of depth, his figures

seem to lack volume and appear to be cardboard cutouts.

Paul GAUGUIN 1848 – 1903

Vision after the sermon

oil on canvas (73 × 92 cm) — 1888

National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh

Paul GAUGUIN Vision after the sermon

1888

National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh

Other painters not only

flatten the canvas and

use surprising spatial

effects but also do so

to emphasize the

otherworldliness of this

world, suggesting a

latent spiritual potential.

Paul Cézanne, Gulf of Marseilles seen from L’Estaque, c.1885, oil on canvas, 31.5 × 39.2 in

Paul Cézanne, Gulf of Marseilles seen from L’Estaque, c.1885, oil on canvas, 31.5 × 39.2 in

Cézanne sees the French landscape in terms of geometric solids and brings

a new sense of structure and solidity to the bright French landscape.

Paul Cézanne, Mont St. Victoire seen from Bellevue, c. 1885, 37.5 × 51.3 inches) Barnes Foundation

Paul Cézanne, Mont Sainte-Victoire and Château Noir, 1904-6, oil on canvas, 25.8 × 31.9 inches

Picasso, Portrait of Wilhelm Uhde, 1910

Catalan artist Pablo PICASSO

had no difficulty painting

representational pictures,

abstractions, and everything in

between. Here he fragments the

portrait of one of his art dealers

into rectangles and triangles.

Over time he will oscillate back and

forth between styles in a seemingly

effortless manner.

Picasso, Still Life with Chair Caning, 1912

Pablo PICASSO, Still Life with Chair Caning, 1912

For this collage, Picasso used wallpaper that imitated chair caning, and wrapped the

whole canvas in real rope. The other portions are painted in imitation of various objects

that might be found on a tabletop.

Picasso, Bottle of Vieux Marc, Glass, Guitar and Newspaper, 1913, Picasso, Bottle of Vieux Marc, Glass, Guitar and Newspaper, 1913

Duchamp, Nude Descending a Staircase, 1912 Duchamp, Bottle Rack, 1914

Duchamp, Nude Descending a Staircase, 1912 Duchamp, Bottle Rack, 1914

Marcel Duchamp realizes that the dynamic forms that interest him can be

found in actual objects just as well as in painting.

Duchamp, Tu M’, 1918

This picture plays with illusion and reality, including a found object that sticks directly

out of the painting. The question Duchamp asks here: why paint a representation of

the object if you can just use the real thing?

René Magritte, The Treachery of Images, 1928-9

In his own way, Belgian artist Magritte asks a similar question, drawing attention

to the fact that the painting of a pipe can never be a real pipe.

Ferdinand Léger

Woman with a Cat, 1921Hannah Höch, The Beautiful Girl, 1920

Artists begin to feel a great freedom to use paint in different ways, or even to forget

about painting and use pictures clipped from magazines to express their ideas.

There are many different ways to put a recognizable figure together, and artists are

drawn to the challenge of finding new methods rather than relying on the old ones.

Fernand LÉGER, The Red Table, 1920. AIC

While some artists experiment with different ways

of breaking down a scene and putting it back together,

others question the need for a subject altogether.

Why not just paint colors and shapes, for their own

beauty?

“There is no such thing as ‘abstract,’ or ‘concrete’… There is a good picture and a bad picture. There is the picture that moves you and the picture that leaves you cold… A picture has a value in itself, like a musical score, like a poem.”

—Fernand Léger

Here French artist Léger tries to explain that it doesn’t really matter whether a

picture has

Wassily KANDINSKY, Composition IV

1911

Oil on canvas, 62 7/8 x 98 5/8 inches

Paul KLEE, Castle and Sun, 1928

El Lissitzky, Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge, 1919, war poster

El Lissitzky

The New Man,

from a portfolio of

10 lithographs,

published 1923

El Lissitzky, Proun Room, 1923

Raoul HAUSSMAN

Mechanical Head (Spirit of Our Time)

1920

Raoul HAUSSMAN

Tatlin at Home

1920

photo collage

Grosz and Heartfield

Dada Picture

c. 1919

collage

cover design, exhibition catalog for First International Dada Fair, 1920

First International Dada Fair, Berlin, June 1920, with participating artists

John Heartfield

Jacket design for

Deutschland, Deutschland

Über Alles, by Kurt Tucholsky

John Heartfield

AIZ (Arbeiters Illustrierte Zeitung)

The Meaning of the Hitler Salute:

Millions Stand Behind Me, Little Man

Asks for Big Donations

John Heartfield

Hitler’s Dove of Peace

cover image Jan 31. 1935

AIZ

John Heartfield

Those Who Read Bourgeois

Newspapers Become Deaf and Dumb

1930

John Heartfield

Adolf, the Superman, Swallows

Gold and Spouts Junk

1932

John Heartfield

The Reichsbishop Drills Christendom

1934

John Heartfield

The Thousand-Year Reich

cover image of AIZ

September 20, 1934

John Heartfield

O Christmas Tree in German

room, how crooked are your branches

1934

John Heartfield

Black or White, in Struggle United

1931

Hannah HÖCH

Das schöne Mädchen

1920

Hannah Höch

Bourgeois Wedding

Couple (Quarrel)

1919

Hannah Höch

Cut with the Kitchen Knife

Dada Through the Last

Weimar Beer-Belly

Cultural Epoch of

Germany

1919-1920

Hannah Höch, Collage, c. 1920

Kur SCHWITTERS

Merz 32A (Cherry Picture)

1921

collage of colored papers,

fabrics, printed labels and

pictures, pieces of wood,

etc., and gouache on

cardboard background

36-1/8 x 27-3/4”

The Museum of Modern Art,

New York

Max Ernst (French, born

Germany. 1891-1976)

Two Children Are Threatened

by a Nightingale (Deux enfants

sont menacés par un rossignol),

1924.

© The Museum of Modern Art,

New York

Max Ernst

Les Pleiades

1920

Max ERNST

The Virgin Spanking the Christ Child

before Three Witnesses: Andre

Breton, Paul Eluard, and the Painter

1926

oil on canvas

Max ERNST

The Elephant Celebes

1921

Giorgio de Chirico

The Song of Love

1914

oil on canvas

2' 7" x 1' 11”

Salvador DALI, Lobster Telephone, 1936

“I do not understand why, when I ask for a grilled lobster in a restaurant, I

am never served a cooked telephone; I do not understand why

champagne is always chilled and why on the other hand telephones,

which are habitually so frightfully warm and disagreeably sticky to the

touch, are not also put in silver buckets with crushed ice around them.”

Meret Oppenheim (Swiss, 1913–1985)

Object

Paris, 1936

Fur-covered cup, saucer, and spoon

© 2014 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / Pro Litteris, Zurich

Remedios VARO

Fenomeno, 1962

Kay SAGE

Le Passage

1956

Arshile GORKY (American, born Armenia. 1904-1948) Garden in Sochi c. 1943.

Arshile GORKY

The Artist and His Mother

c. 1926-36

I don’t like that word, “finish.” When

something is finished, that means it’s

dead, doesn’t it? I believe in

everlastingness. I never finish a

painting—I just stop working on it for a

while.

Arshile Gorky, 1948

Willem de Kooning

(American, b. The Netherlands,

1904-1997).

Woman, I, 1950-52

Oil on canvas

75 7/8 x 58 inches

Willem de

KOONING

Two Women at the

Beach

1953

“…if you pick up some paint with your brush and

make somebody's nose with it, this is rather ridiculous

when you think of it, theoretically or philosophically. It's

really absurd to make an image, like a human image,

with paint, today, when you think about it, since we

have this problem of doing it or not doing it. But then

all of a sudden it was even more absurd not to do it.

So I fear I have to follow my desires.”

—Willem de Kooning,

in a 1962 radio interview

Like Léger before him, de Kooning points

out that it doesn’t really matter if a painting

has a subject or not.

Key points

• Imbrication of art and commerce

• constant cross-pollination between elite and popular culture

• moving past realist modes of representation (post-photographic)

• development of self-reflective capacity

• critical perspectives on the treatment of women and non-whites in previous art

• awareness of the power of representation to shape belief

Titian, Venus of Urbino, 1538, oil on canvas

E.V. Day,

Flesh for Fantasy

1999

Four blowup lovedolls and

stainless steel surgical wire

The pink vinyl flesh of two girls

and two boys is shredded into

fragments of varying degrees of

recognition and strewn through

out a room into what I hope will

be an explosive orgy. The

fragments are hung with

stainless steel steel surgical

wire, normally used for stitching

human bones. The wires are

connected to turn buckles in a

heart shaped configuration in

the floor, and shoot out

chaotically to the ceiling. "Flesh

for Fantasy" is situated in a

room with four entrances that

allows the viewer to pass

through and around the

installation from all directions.

E.V. Day, Flesh for Fantasy, 2000

Blow-up dolls, surgical wire, hooks

Titian, Venus of Urbino, 1538

Oil on canvas

El Lissitzky, Kurt Schwitters,

1924

Kurt Schwitters (1887-

1948)

Hanover, Germany

Kunstakademie, Dresden (Otto Dix and George Grosz)

Associated with Dada movement

Declared “degenerate artist”

Fled to Norway, then the UK

"Everything an artist spits out is art."

These interiors were built into

Schwitters’ family home in Hanover

starting in 1923.

He fled to Norway in 1937, and the

house was destroyed by Allied bombs

in 1943.

He called these strange assemblages

of wood, plaster and found objects

“Merzbau.”

Robert Rauschenberg, Monogram 1955-59, mixed mediums with taxidermy goat, rubber tire and tennis ball

Robert RAUSCHENBERG

Pilgrim

1960

Rauschenberg called these

mixed media works “combines.”

In them he directly juxtaposes

fragments of the “real world”

with paintings. He seems to be

questioning the limits and

possibilities of both modes.

Edward Kienholz

(1927-1994)

Edward KIENHOLZ, State Hospital, 1966, exterior view

Edward KIENHOLZ

State Hospital

1966, interior view

Here Kienholz uses found

materials to express outrage

at modern institutions. The

materials are repulsive, but they

make an undeniably artistic

statement.

Edward KIENHOLZ, Portable War Memorial, 1968

Review

You can use the following slides, all linked around the

theme of smoking, to help you reconstruct the

development of modern art and the various changes it

goes through.

Gustave COURBET

Portrait of the Artist (Man with a Pipe)

c. 1848-49

Oil on canvas

17 3/4 x 14 5/8 in

Musee Fabre, Montpellier

Vincent van

Gogh

Pencil and

transparent

watercolour

March, 1884

Cézanne, Paul

Man with a Pipe

Circa 1892-96

Oil on canvas

73 cm x 60 cm

The Courtauld Gallery,

London

Pablo Picasso

Spanish (1881–1973)

1911

Oil on canvas

35 11/16 x 27 15/16 in

can you find the pipe?

Pablo Picasso

(Spanish, worked in France, 1881–1973)

Man with a Pipe

1915

Oil on canvas

51 1/4 x 35 1/4 in.

René Magritte (Belgium, 1898-1967)

The Treachery of Images (This is Not a Pipe)

1929

Oil on canvas, 23 3/4 x 31 15/16 inches

Damien Hirst

Crematorium

1996

Fibreglass, cigarettes, cigarette packaging, tobacco packaging, cigarette papers, matches,

tissues, sweet wrappings, swizzle sticks, drug paraphernalia and ash

23 x 96 x 96 in